Two more staff members of the Department of Horticulture in Villupuram district have been suspended in connection with irregularities in installation of drip irrigation system under various government schemes.
The employees were identified as Loganathan, superintendent, and Karthikeyan, office assistant in the Department. Their involvement came to light during a probe by the Directorate of Horticulture. “The suspension orders were issued on Tuesday,” a senior official in Villupuram said.
Last month, two officers - Ravi, Assistant Director of Horticulture (Kandamangalam block) and Thirumal, Horticulture Officer (Sankarapuram block) - were suspended on similar charges.
“There was prima facie evidence that funds were misappropriated. Therefore, the officials were suspended. A detailed probe is on,” said a senior official in Chennai, requesting anonymity.
According to sources, the officials had cleared cheques for over Rs 5 crore without getting the signature of the District Collector for defective installation .
Third party inspection reports for installations for the past two financial years indicated defects such as non-installation, installation in a lesser area and improper survey numbers, the officials said. In many cases, subsidy should not have been released, they emphasise.
According to the preliminary probe report, applications were not available at the office of the deputy director for more than 800 beneficiaries for which subsidy was released, sources said. Random field inspections revealed that drip irrigation systems were not installed in the field.
Confirming that there was prima facie evidence on huge misappropriation based on perusal of records followed by field inspection, the report suggested a detailed enquiry into all the applications and drip installations in the fields.
In February 2015, a special audit detected irregularities to the tune of Rs 36.52 lakh.
The then Deputy Director (in-charge), Villupuram district was given 15 days time by the Horticulture Director/Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Horticulture Development Agency.
A probe was ordered subsequently but nothing came out of it, sources said adding that a few companies blacklisted in the audit report were given subsidy this year also.
Two more Horticulture Department
employees suspended
